This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by glatt

...even if you are dropping the hyperlinks. you slacker.

Post 331 is a make-up post, and I'm feeling a little lazy today, so I kinda coasted on the Oct 18 entry.

[glatt]

Nothing lazy about what you are doing.

[Gravdigr]

Meh. Makes the time go by.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

Meh. Makes the time go by.

So does sex, but what ever you chose is your business.

[Gravdigr]

October 20

Today is World Osteoporosis Day, as well as World Statistics Day. So, know that 2-8% of men, and 9-38% of women are affected by osteoporosis.

Today is Vietnamese Women's Day (Ngày phụ nữ Việt Nam) in Vietnam.

Events

1720 – Caribbean pirate Calico Jack is captured by the Royal Navy.

1781 – The Patent of Toleration, providing limited freedom of worship, is approved in Habsburg Monarchy.

1803 – The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.

1818 – The Convention of 1818 is signed between the United States and the United Kingdom, which settles the Canada–United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.

1827 – In the Battle of Navarino, a combined Turkish and Egyptian fleet is defeated by British, French, and Russian naval forces in the last significant battle fought with wooden sailing ships.

1873 – Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.

1935 – The Long March, a mammoth retreat undertaken by the armed forces of the Chinese Communist Party a year prior, ends.

1941 – World War II: Thousands of civilians in Kragujevac in German-occupied Serbia are murdered in the Kragujevac massacre.

1944 – Liquefied natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland and then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130 people.

1944 – American General Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.

1946 – Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam decides that October 20 is Vietnam Women's Day.

1947 – The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.

1951 – The "Johnny Bright incident" (a violent on-field assault against African American player Johnny Bright by white player Wilbanks Smith during an American college football game) occurs in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

1962 - Bobby 'Boris' Pickett and the Crypt Kickers started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Monster Mash', it became a No.3 in the UK eleven years later in 1973.

1968 – Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.

1973 – "Saturday Night Massacre": United States President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.

1973 – The Sydney Opera House is opened by Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction work.

1976 – The ferry George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing the Mississippi River between Destrehan and Luling, Louisiana. Seventy-eight passengers and crew die, and only 18 people aboard the ferry survive.

1977 – Rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crashes after running out of fuel near Gillsburg, Mississippi.

1983 - American country/western singer/songwriter Merle Travis died of a heart attack, aged 65. Travis is acknowledged as one of the most influential American guitarists of the twentieth century.

1991 – The Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 people, and destroys 3,469 homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage.

2011 – Libyan Civil War: National Transitional Council rebel forces capture ousted Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte and kill him within the hour.

Births

1632 – Christopher Wren (designed St Paul's Cathedral); 1854 – Arthur Rimbaud; 1882 – Bela Lugosi; 1885 – Jelly Roll Morton; 1895 – Rex Ingram (the genie in The Thief of Bagdad); 1907 – Arlene Francis; 1913 – Grandpa Jones; 1922 – John Anderson; 1925 – Art Buchwald; 1925 – Tom Dowd♪ ♫; 1927 – Dr. Joyce Brothers; 1931 – Mickey Mantle; 1935 – Jerry Orbach; 1936 – Bobby Seale; 1937 – Wanda Jackson♪ ♫; 1940 – Kathy Kirby♪ ♫; 1942 – Earl Hindman (neighbor 'Wilson W. Wilson, Jr.' on Home Improvement); 1946 – Lewis Grizzard (Designing Women); 1950 – Tom Petty; 1951 – Al Greenwood(Foreigner); 1953 – Keith Hernandez; 1955 – Aaron Pryor; 1956 – Danny Boyle; 1958 – Viggo Mortensen; 1961 – Les Stroud♪ ♫ (Survivorman); 1964 – Jim Sonefeld (Hootie & The Blowfish); 1967 – Fred Coury(Cinderella); 1971 – Snoop Dogg♪ ♫; 1979 – John Krasinski (The Office)

Deaths

1936 – Anne Sullivan (companion to Helen Keller); 1964 – Herbert Hoover (31st POTUS); 1977 – Cassie Gaines♪ ♫, Steve Gaines, Ronnie Van Zant♪ ♫ (all three were members of Lynyrd Skynyrd); 1983 – Merle Travis; 1989 – Anthony Quayle; 1990 – Joel McCrea; 1994 – Burt Lancaster; 1995 – Christopher Stone; 2003 – Jack Elam; 2005 – Shirley Horn; 2006 – Jane Wyatt (Spock's mother on Star Trek TOS); 2010 – Bob Guccione(founded Penthouse magazine); 2011 – Muammar Gaddafi (int'l asshole); 2011 – Mutassim Gaddafi (the asshole's son); 2014 – Oscar de la Renta

[sexobon]

"Jack Elam "

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by sexobon

"Jack Elam "

I wondered if anyone would get that.

[Gravdigr]

October 21

Today is International Day of the Nacho. So, nacho up.

The Britishers are celebrating Apple Day, as well as Trafalgar Day, today.

Events

1097 – First Crusade: Crusaders led by Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemund of Taranto, and Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, begin the Siege of Antioch.

1512 – Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg.

1520 – Ferdinand Magellan discovers the strait that now bears his name.

1774 – First display of the word "Liberty" on a flag, raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts in defiance of British rule in Colonial America.

1797 – In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution is launched.

1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar: A British fleet led by Vice Admiral Lord Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet under Admiral Villeneuve.

1824 – Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement.

1867 – The Medicine Lodge Treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in western Oklahoma.

1879 – Thomas Edison invents the first commercially practical incandescent light bulb.

1940 – The first edition of the Ernest Hemingway novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is published. Spoiler: It tolls for thee.

1944 – World War II: The first kamikaze attack. A Japanese fighter plane carrying a 200-kilogram (440 lb) bomb attacks HMAS Australia off Leyte Island, as the Battle of Leyte Gulf begins.

1944 – World War II: Battle of Aachen: The city of Aachen falls to American forces after three weeks of fighting, making it the first German city to fall to the Allies.

1959 – In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens to the public.

1959 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA.

1966 – Aberfan disaster: A colliery spoil tip collapses on the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren.

1972 - Chuck Berry started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'My Ding-A-Ling', his first and only US and UK No.1, 17 years after his first chart hit.

1973 – Fred Dryer of the Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.

1978 – Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes in a Cessna 182 over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.

1983 – The metre is defined at the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.

Births

1772 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge (wrote poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Kubla Khan); 1833 – Alfred Nobel (invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prize); 1912 – Georg Solti♪ ♫; 1917 – Dizzy Gillespie♪ ♫; 1928 – Whitey Ford; 1935 – Derek Bell♪ ♫(The Chieftans); 1940 – Manfred Mann♪ ♫; 1941 – Steve Cropper(Booker T. & the M.G.'s); 1942 – Elvin Bishop(he ain't good-lookin', but he sure can play); 1942 – Judith Sheindlin (American bitch); 1952 – Patti Davis; 1953 – Charlotte Caffey(The Go-Gos); 1956 – Carrie Fisher; 1957 – Steve Lukather(Toto); 1976 – Josh Ritter♪ ♫; 1980 – Kim Kardashian

Deaths

1805 – Horatio Nelson; 1965 – Bill Black; 1969 – Jack Kerouac; 1984 – François Truffaut; 1985 – Dan White (Harvey Milk's & George Mosconi's assassin); 1995 – Nancy Graves; 1995 – Shannon Hoon(Blind Melon); 2006 – Sandy West(The Runaways); 2012 – George McGovern; 2013 – Bud Adams (owner Tennessee Titans); 2014 – Ben Bradlee (WaPo editor); 2014 – Nelson Bunker Hunt (one of the Hunt Bros, they tried to corner the silver market in the late 70s)

[Carruthers]

Thanks Mr G! I always enjoy your posts in this topic.
Unfortunately, it's also a reminder of my own mortality as the events I can actually remember seem to increase in number as each day passes.

To Trafalgar Day. No, I don't remember the battle, but Dad being an old sea dog, always pauses for thought on October 21st.

[Gravdigr]

You are more than welcome Good Carruthers!

I try to throw Dwellars in other countries a bone every now and then, but, I'm afraid I'm not up what's an important date/event in other countries' history.

I veer away from Kings and Queens because Britain has had so many, and they all have the same names!! How many Charless, Henrys, Georges and Marys can ya have for God's sake?! There's almost literally one or the other has died, been born, or was crowned or killed every day. I can't keep up with who was popular, hated, or laughed at.

I do, however, know a few people who live in England, and Australia who know these things. And they are more than welcome to add or correct anything I've missed (or left out on purpose) to this thread. In fact, they are encouraged to do so.

[Undertoad]

From this USians perspective I can't believe I had never heard of the Aberfan disaster. I guess that's the nature of disasters like that, overseas you don't hear much of the history of them. What a horrible, horrible event.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Well it was foreigners who are all rapists and drug dealers.

[Carruthers]

I remember the Aberfan disaster from my schooldays although some of the detail has become hazy with the passage of time.
This week's commemorations of the disaster, have brought to light the disgraceful way the National Coal Board and the Government behaved in the aftermath of the tragedy.

In 1966, the Aberfan Disaster Memorial Fund (ADMF) received 90,000 contributions which reached a total of £1,606,929. The remaining tips were only eventually made safe after a lengthy fight from Aberfan residents, resisted by the NCB and Labour Government. Clearing was paid for by a government grant and forced contribution of £150,000 taken from the charity fund. In 1997 the Labour Government paid back the £150,000 to the ADMF and in 2007 the Welsh Assembly donated £1.5 million to ADMF as recompense for the money wrongly taken.

Despicable is the only way to describe it.

Quote is from UT's link above.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

From this USians perspective I can't believe I had never heard of the Aberfan disaster. I guess that's the nature of disasters like that, overseas you don't hear much of the history of them. What a horrible, horrible event.

I was thinking pretty much the same thing.

[Gravdigr]

October 22

Today, our friends down under celebrate Wombat Day, honoring (what else?) wombats.

Today is Make A Difference Day, so, do that.

The world marks today as International Stuttering Awareness Day.

Also, TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY, SO ♪ ♫SHOUT IT SHOUT IT SHOUT IT OUT LOUD♪ ♫.

Events

4004 BC – The world was created at approximately six o'clock in the evening, according to the Ussher chronology.

1707 – Scilly naval disaster: four British Royal Navy ships run aground near the Isles of Scilly because of faulty navigation. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell and thousands of sailors drown.

1790 – Warriors of the Miami people under Chief Little Turtle defeat United States troops under General Josiah Harmar at the site of present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the Northwest Indian War.

1797 – André-Jacques Garnerin makes the first recorded parachute jump from one thousand meters (3,200 feet) above Paris.

1836 – Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

1844 – The Great Anticipation: Millerites, followers of William Miller, anticipate the end of the world in conjunction with the Second Advent of Christ. The following day became known as the Great Disappointment.

1879 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13½ hours before burning out).

1883 – The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opens with a performance of Gounod's Faust.

1884 – The Royal Observatory in Britain is adopted as the prime meridian of longitude by the International Meridian Conference.

1895 – In Paris an express train derails (<--awesome photo, btw) after overrunning the buffer stop, crossing almost 30 metres (100 ft) of concourse before crashing through a wall and falling 10 metres (33 ft) to the road below.

1927 – Nikola Tesla introduces six new inventions including single-phase electric power.

1934 – In East Liverpool, Ohio, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents shoot and kill notorious bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd.

1957 – Vietnam War: First United States casualties in Vietnam.

1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: US President John F. Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval "quarantine" of the Communist nation.

1964 – Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but turns down the honor.

1966 – The Supremes become the first all-female music group to attain a No. 1 selling album (The Supremes A' Go-Go).

1972 – Vietnam War: In Saigon, Henry Kissinger and South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu meet to discuss a proposed cease-fire that had been worked out between Americans and North Vietnamese in Paris.

1976 – Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs.

1983 – Two correctional officers are killed by inmates at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspires the Supermax model of prisons.

1986 - Jane Dornacker was killed in a helicopter crash during a live traffic report for WNBC radio in New York. Listeners heard the terrified voice of Dornacker screaming "Hit the water, hit the water!" as the helicopter from which she and pilot Bill Pate were reporting, fell from the sky and crashed into the Hudson River. Dornacker had been a member of The Tubes and Leila And The Snakes.

1990 - Pearl Jam played their first ever concert when they appeared at the Off Ramp in Seattle.

2001 – Grand Theft Auto III was released, popularizing a genre of open-world, action-adventure video games as well as spurring controversy around violence in video games.

2005 – Tropical Storm Alpha forms in the Atlantic Basin, making the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with 22 named storms.

2013 – The Australian Capital Territory becomes the first Australian jurisdiction to legalize same-sex marriage with the Marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act 2013.

2014 – Michael Zehaf-Bibeau attacks the Parliament of Canada in Ottawa, Canada, killing a soldier and injuring three other people.

Births

1734 – Daniel Boone; 1811 – Franz Liszt; 1844 – Louis Riel; 1882 – N. C. Wyeth; 1903 – Curly Howard (of Stooge fame); 1904 – Constance Bennett; 1917 – Joan Fontaine; 1920 – Timothy Leary; 1925 – Robert Rauschenberg; 1931 – Ann Rule; 1938 – Christopher Lloyd; 1939 – Tony Roberts; 1942 – Annette Funicello; 1943 – Catherine Deneuve; 1945 - Leslie West(Mountain); 1947 – Deepak Chopra; 1948 – Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme (attempted assassin of Gerald Ford); 1952 – Jeff Goldblum; 1962 – Bob Odenkirk; 1963 – Brian Boitano; 1965 – Valeria Golino; 1968 – Jay Johnston; 1968 – Shaggy♪ ♫; 1969 – Spike Jonze; 1972 – Saffron Burrows; 1975 – Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family); 1985 – Zac Hanson(Hanson)

Deaths

741 – Charles Martel; 1906 – Paul Cézanne; 1934 – Pretty Boy Floyd; 1973 – Pablo Casals♪ ♫; 1989 – Jacob Wetterling (kidnapping victim); 1992 – Cleavon Little ("Where da white women at?"); 1998 – Eric Ambler; 2006 – Arthur Hill (The Andromeda Strain); 2009 – Soupy Sales; 2012 – Russell Means ('Chingachgook' in The Last of the Mohicans (1992)); 2013 – Marylou Dawes